Phenomenon vs Great Writing

E.L. James was named Publisher Weekly’s Person of the Year. What does this mean? Marketing is more important than breaking every writing rule that could possibly be broken. It means that great writing is not as important as creating a phenomenon.

All those in E.L. James’ corner, which is her editor, literary agent, publishers around the world, and of course, PW, claim that, “It’s not about the money. E.L. James is changing the publishing industry.”

Authors would argue that this is the wrong direction. Instead, authors are serious about keeping the purity of books and want to believe that a great story is much more important than a well executed marketing plan.

PW made E.L. James Person of the Year because of the impact her book series made in both the publishing industry and in the minds of readers. E.L. James has become “the new style of writing in publishing.”

Fifty Shades of Grey series brought in over $200 million, but 90% of the reviews thrashed the series. Everyone knows that the books were written like a first time author. But it could not have been about the writing when E.L. James signed with Random House. Any person with reasonable writing knowledge could see that her writing and characters were horrible.